palagi

/ˈpɑːləŋi/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.25 in modern English

Scrabble Score

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Meaning

noun

New Zealand usage

"‘Serves him right for trying to act like a palagi!’ she muttered to herself."
"Then Ione said: "Jerry, you are the only honest palagi I ever met.""
"After 170 years this is the closest Auckland has come to having a brown mayor. Sure he's a Palagi. But his name is Brown, he's run Manukau for a long time and there's heaps of brown people there so he's gladly owned by many in the Pacific Community."

From Samoan pālagi, variant of papālagi (“white person, European”). Compare earlier papalagi.

palagis (plural)

papalagi

Questions

How do you pronounce palagi?

The recorded pronunciation is /ˈpɑːləŋi/.

What does palagi mean?

A white person; a Caucasian.

Where does palagi come from?

How to pronounce palagi

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “palagi”.

Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈpɑːləŋi/) so you know which sounds to aim for.

Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “palagi”.

Repeat and practice — Say “palagi” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.